--- title: Veterans Affairs Controversy: Nurse Said To Do Surgery Drunk description: A nurse at a Pennsylvania Veterans Affair hospital allegedly participated in an emergency surgery while drunk canonical: https://time.com/4237527/va-veterans-affairs-nurse-drunk-surgery/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-25T17:53:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:23:24.944Z article:section: Politics og:title: Veterans Affairs Controversy: Nurse Said To Do Surgery Drunk og:description: A nurse at a Pennsylvania Veterans Affair hospital allegedly participated in an emergency surgery while drunk og:url: https://time.com/4237527/va-veterans-affairs-nurse-drunk-surgery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Veterans Affairs Controversy: Nurse Said To Do Surgery Drunk twitter:description: A nurse at a Pennsylvania Veterans Affair hospital allegedly participated in an emergency surgery while drunk twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # VA Nurse Allegedly Participated in Surgery While Drunk  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 25, 2016 5:53 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 25, 2016 5:53 PM UTC A nurse at a Pennsylvania Veterans Affair hospital allegedly participated in an emergency surgery while drunk, according to a Washington _Post_ [report](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/25/rick-are-you-drunk-or-something-police-say-va-nurse-downed-beers-assisted-in-surgery/). Richard Pieri now faces charges a slew of charges including endangering another person and driving under the influence, according to court documents obtained by the _Post_. He reportedly told investigators that he had forgotten he was on call and had gotten drunk at a local casino. He did not want to call in sick when he received word of an emergency appendectomy, according to the report. The news comes as the Veterans Affairs Department faces a [string](http://time.com/3576907/veterans-affairs-chief-fixes/) of [controversies](http://time.com/3604064/va-ousts-hospital-chief-in-phoenix-scandal/) over the service it provides to veterans. \[[Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/25/rick-are-you-drunk-or-something-police-say-va-nurse-downed-beers-assisted-in-surgery/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4237527/va-veterans-affairs-nurse-drunk-surgery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4237527/va-veterans-affairs-nurse-drunk-surgery/"},"headline":"VA Nurse Allegedly Participated in Surgery While Drunk","datePublished":"2016-02-25T17:53:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:23:24.944Z","description":"Authorities say he showed up to appendectomy drunk","url":"https://time.com/4237527/va-veterans-affairs-nurse-drunk-surgery/","keywords":["Military"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4237527/va-veterans-affairs-nurse-drunk-surgery/","name":"VA Nurse Allegedly Participated in Surgery While Drunk"}}]}] ```